Are your clothes getting tighter around the waist? Is your body becoming more oblong and out of shape?

If the answer to the above questions is a yes, then you are suffering from increasing belly fat, that gets accumulated due to a number of natural and man-made triggers.

Belly fat is more than a just an aesthetic disposition of the body. An abdominal bulge is due to the storage of excessive visceral fat around the liver, stomach, and pancreas. This ‘beer gut’ is a predictor of metabolic diseases like type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, some heart diseases, and cancer.

A simple tape can measure stomach fat. Standing up, wrap the tape around your waist and check your girth at the belly button. Make sure that the tape measure is level. A healthy body mass index dictates that your waist size be less than 35 inches in women and less than 40 inches in men.

Ways To Burn Stomach Fat

Losing fat from the abdomen area can be a difficult task, Some well-proven strategies target the specific fat buildup in the belly area.

Fibrous Diet
Soluble fiber is mostly indigestible plant matter that binds water, forming a viscous gel that ‘sits’ in the gut. This viscous gel helps in slowing down food as it passes through the digestive tract and gives you the feeling of being full. There is better absorption of nutrients, and your appetite remains in check. It is also known to decrease the number of calories that your body absorbs from the food thus helping burn stomach fat.

High fiber foods include consuming vegetables and fruits. Legumes, flax seeds, shirataki noodles, Brussels sprouts, avocados, blackberries and some cereals like oats are excellent sources of fiber.

Furthermore, a fiber supplement like glucomannan can be taken to provide benefit to the digestive system. It improves metabolic health and helps burn belly fat.

Cut-Off Carb Intake
One of the most effective ways to lose fat from the abdomen is a low-carbohydrate diet. The benefit of a low-carb diet lies in the fact that a high proportion of the fat loss is the visceral fat that leads to metabolic diseases.

• Pick low-fat options in meat and poultry like fish which is rich in omega 3 fats.
• Cut down on unrefined & whole grains starches – potatoes, cereals, etc.
• Avoid foods with high sugar content.

Trials show that a low-carb diet leads to 2-3 times more weight loss than a low-fat diet. Rapid reductions in water weight give instant results and a marked improvement on a weighing scale.

Monitor Calorie Intake
To lose the extra pounds, it is important to not only check what you eat but also how much you are eating. Diet optimizing cannot be achieved without keeping track of your daily calorie intake.

Consume More Proteins
Research puts protein as the most important macronutrient that helps burn stomach fat. A maintained quality protein diet over a period boosts metabolism and reduces hunger pangs by 60%. Consuming a diet rich in protein nutrients helps cut down your daily average calorie intake by almost 400 calories. As a long-term strategy for weight reduction, protein diets help your body avoid regaining weight even if you are not actively pursuing weightloss.

Cooking tip: Studies show that cooking food in coconut oil helps with fat reduction. Coconut oil is one of the healthiest medium-chain fats you can eat. Add only two tablespoons (30 ml) of coconut oil to your daily cooking and see how the measuring tape sits on your reduced belly.

Alcohol Moderation
Not only does alcohol add unwanted calories to your daily diet but it inhibits the burning of fat in your midriff. Calories gained from alcohol cannot be stored by your body to be processed later. Therefore, the body gets forced to store calories from your previous meal as fat. It is best to take alcohol in moderation and limit its intake to a few times a week.

Exercise
Aerobic exercises are a great form of cardio workout that proves to be an effective way to improve health and burning the unwanted calories. But, cardio workout alone won’t help with the ‘spot reduction’ you are aiming for. Doctors recommend that you do a combination of weights and cardiovascular training – strength training. This increases muscle mass which burns more calories throughout the day.

In addition to the above-mentioned methods, you could:

• Drink green tea – the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate boosts metabolism
• Eat probiotic foods/supplements – improving gut health and enhance immune function
• Add apple cider vinegar to your diet – its acetic acid content helps with fat reduction

Increased stress levels make it harder for you to drop those unwanted pounds. So cut down on your stress levels and make sure you get plenty of restful sleep.